Popular athletes can reflect the broader societal change that is going on around them; they can also be instigators of that change. This collection traces the African-American civil rights movement through the 20th century and touches on athletes like Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson, and Muhammad A

Our Democracy: A National Youth Summit civic education series Over the course of the 2022–2023 school year, we'll release classroom resources that address the driving question, "How do the stories we tell about our past shape our democracy?" Each case study uses museum objects and artifacts,

In this classroom activity, students will analyze political cartoons and letters to the editor in order to identify and analyze the range of reactions to the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision, and the ways in which the Court's mandates were enacted or blocked. Students will also be able to co

In this classroom activity, students will create posters that will help them identify the role of Howard University as an African American cultural center, the emergence of black lawyers as civil rights leaders, the importance of the NAACP and the roles of Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Ma

In the classroom activity, students will be able to explain the difference between primary and secondary sources, and explain how the value of using primary sources is important to history. By using primary sources to answer a series of questions, they will see that, much like detectives, histori

Cartoons are great documents that can tell both funny and serious stories. In this activity, children will first read Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers. Then they will use what they have learned about Abraham Lincoln and their critical thinking skills to add a scene to the story in the form of a co

Explore a local train-related site with safety and discussion tips for kids and families. Part of an OurStory module entitled All Aboard the Train!, this activity includes strategies for selecting a train-related field trip in your area (such as train stations, train tracks, or train mus

In these electronic field trips produced by the National Museum of American History, viewers are given a 20 minute tour by the curators of the exhibition Separate Is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education, followed by a 30 minute videotaped question and answer session about the Brown v. Board of

This activity will encourage children to look for math in their everyday activities, and introduce science concepts behind the game of baseball. In this activity, students will use discussion prompts to make the most of their visit. This activity is part of an OurStory module entitled Life in

Was Francis Scott Key a good poet? In this classroom activity, students will analyze  "The Star-Spangled Banner" for Key's use of poetic devices. They will then express the meaning of "The Star-Spangled Banner" national anthem in their own words and write their own poetry in relation to the